Developments were expected in New York this year. With new terrains in Brooklyn's Prospect Park coming on stream soon, and the space at Bryant Park getting cramped for the ever growing number of players, there would either be a Boule NY with several venues or a second club. It will be the latter.From what I understand the Prospect Park Club will concentrate on tournaments, and - given the ample space - large ones too, whereas La Boule NY will continue to be the jovial Manhattan meeting place and irreplaceable breeding ground for new players. Both missions are totally complementary and I can picture NY players playing at both locations throughout the year. Of course we wish both clubs the best of luck and continued growth.
Every petanque club worldwide goes through stages where some want to stress the competitive angle and others the social aspect. Some clubs have different types of membership. Other clubs split. Sometimes we forget that the sport is barely 100 years old and that growing pains are healthy.
The more clubs, the merrier. After all, NY has more inhabitants than Belgium or Holland. Each have hundreds of clubs.
Today's article in NY Magazine uses wildly exaggerated terms like "rebels" and "defectors" and highlights ethnicity and discord. That's what gossip columnists like. And surely explains the selective choice of the phrases they printed. The stock photo they used - 8 boules almost piled up - certainly was not taken in New York!Sacré Boule! New York Pétanque Team Gets Le Divorce - NY Magazine 2009-01-23
PS: the only good part of being "gossip" news is that the article was reprinted by several blogs, like Gossipmax.com, between celebrity tidbits. You see, petanque is going places.
5 comments:
Philippe,
As much as we agree that "there is no bad publicity" as you said, wrong information start discord among friends and this is the last thing we want. You said it in your blog, LBNY and the NYPC will be totally complementary, and we really want your readers to know it. Below is my comment to the joke Mr. Murphy published in NY Magazine:
Too much false information in this article would give the wrong impression about what’s happening in NYC and I have to add a corrections!
To begin with the title: Le Divorce! Absolutely false! Members from both clubs have reciprocal rights to participate to all tournaments organized by LBNY or NYPC. Members from both clubs will enjoy the privilege to use the Brooklyn courts or the NYC ones. Where is the divorce? Trust me! I have divorced and the terms are quite different! NYPC is creating a "competitive branch" to LBNY, NYPC will undertake the training of young players, will create workshops for the members who want to get better at our game/sport...which is a bit more than "ball-rolling". It is the assumption of the author that the "top 8 players" have left LBNY. Again, false! no one from NYPC have said such fallacy to the author, and if it is true that 3 of the members of the NYPC will represent the USA at the next World Championship, the words "top player" never came from the mouth of "splinter-group leader" Jean-Pierre Subrenat. I have been called many things in my life but this is a new one! There is not "one" leader! A group of players have created a new club, in TOTALLY friendly terms with LBNY, and there is no ground to look for material for a new Soap Opera à la French way! Mr. Murphy, you make me look like Che Guevara, and you put words into Mr. Santos mouth for your own fun. Mr. Santos is not measuring the fact that only half of new members of NYPC are superior...you made him say that and it's not nice for the other half...whoever it is!
We are a peaceful group of pétanque players who try to go about their sport without attracting gossip columnist of the NYC papers, and we intend to remain that way. If to you, it's a source of fun, enjoy it, but also, please come and see us when the season starts, and you'll change your mind!
Jean-Pierre Subrenat
All right. Let' s be direct and frank.
so is it a new club or not?
who can join?
define "complementary" in petanque
what is "more sport than social"?
will getting apart and having a totally different and "workshop" or a "mini league" exclusively reserved to some privilegees improve US petanque playing ?(which is nowhere to be comparable to other countries... get real ...face the truth... what's our ranking compared to tiny islands like mauritius? singapore or thailand for instance? we never got out of the 1/32nd finals...and they got no more than 40 players in mauritius)
playing with the same faces and the same opponents will never make you... improve either
Brooklyn Boule would like to welcome NYPC and all it's members to Brooklyn. We all look forward to watching your club grow and bringing a new dynamic to pétanque in New York.
One of these Days I will grow up Strong and Play with the Big Boys in NY.
Juan
thanks for the information..
___________________
Sharon
Entertainment at one stop
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